Margaret Island, River island in Budapest, Hungary

Margaret Island is a 2.5-kilometre-long, 500-metre-wide river island in the Danube, spanning the water between Margaret Bridge to the south and Árpád Bridge to the north. Its present form was created at the end of the 19th century by joining three separate islands: Festő, Fürdő and Nyulak. The island is mostly covered by landscape parks, with medieval ruins, a water tower and sports facilities among the trees.

The island was called Insula leporum (Island of Rabbits) before the 14th century, when it was renamed after Saint Margaret (1242–1270), daughter of Béla IV, who lived in the Dominican convent here. In the 12th century the Knights of St. John settled on the island, and it remained dominated by nunneries, churches and cloisters until the 16th century, when the Ottoman wars left the buildings destroyed.

The island's name honours Saint Margaret (1242–1270), daughter of Béla IV, who lived in the Dominican convent here. The 13th-century names Nyulak's Island and Nagyboldogasszony-Island survive in records, and the Turkish name Kızadası (Girls' Island) probably refers to the nuns who fled. Visitors can see the ruins of the Dominican church and convent.

Cars are banned from the island, so most visitors arrive on foot, by bicycle, or using public transport across the bridges. Bicycle rentals are available, and the flat paths make it easy to get around and explore different areas at your own pace.

The island's name was not always Margaret's: before the 14th century it was Insula leporum, Island of Rabbits. Archaeologist Ottó Trogmayer suggested the Latin name may be a copying error for Insula leprorum, Island of Lepers, fitting the hospitals built here and the site's isolation from the city. The northern tip once held the Fürdő-sziget, named for its fifty to sixty hot springs and dredged away in 1873.